Brain Dead

A sleepy fishing port town is consumed with terror when a small crater crash-lands nearby and releases a slimy parasitic agent that transforms the residents into brain-eating zombies. Cornered in an abandoned fishing lodge, six strangers are forced to band together to stave off the blood-sucking monsters clawing the walls outside.

I get a little worried when you have a horror film from a known director (Kevin Tenney, "Witchboard" and "Night of the Demons") and it takes three years to go from film festival to DVD. I get the impression that it must be pretty bad if companies are not willing to take a chance on a man who is known to have a winning streak in his past. Does my apprehension have basis in reality?

Well, the film is great at what it does, let us say that. Cheesy? Oh, yes. But the gore is amazing, very much in the splatter tradition of Lamberto Bava's "Demons". This film does not take itself seriously, but I think that is its strength, because the low budget does not give it the ability to be too serious. Tenney approached this the right way.

Amy is very, very sexy with a cute face and the seductive hairstyle that lures dirty old men. Her breasts are a bit large for my liking, but I am probably in the minority and I really probably should not complain at all -- what is a horror film without topless women? And there are topless and bottomless women... and the big breasts just keep bouncing (and floating).

One cheesiness that could have been cleaned up was the tattoo on the convict... just not believable at all. No tattoo is that dark. But then, you get lines like, "My phone bill is higher than Whitney Houston", and it all seems okay.

I would feel like I failed in my duty if I neglected to say this film has an obvious connection to "The Blob", with its villain being of a meteor origin. But the connection is weak, and it is neither an homage nor a ripoff.

Actually "Brain Dead" was a nice surprise for a zombie movie that doesn't brandish a several million dollar Hollywood budget. Sure the story here doesn't offer anything new to the zombie genre, and actually borrows heavily from the classic horror movie "The Evil Dead".

The story is about a meteor striking Earth, and amazingly enough strikes through the forehead of a fisherman. The meteor, of course, is carrying some alien parasite which takes over the body of the fisherman and instantaneously turns him into a mutant zombie-like creature. Two convicts escape from the local police and seek shelter in a remote cabin. Two hiking women lost in the woods seek shelter in the cabin. And a lusty televangelist and one of his congregation girls seek shelter in the cabin. These unlikely destinies come together and band together for surviving the night, as ravenous space mutant-zombies are stalking the dark woods.

Yeah, fairly average story here, and actually, the movie wasn't carried by the plot of the story. "Brain Dead" was carried by the rather outstanding acting performances by almost every single actor and actress and the gory special effects.

The characters in the movie were also pretty good, sure they were stereotypical in their own way, but they were also very memorable and unique in their own way. Each character brought something nice to the story.

"Brain Dead" has a good amount of blood and gore, most likely even enough to keep most gorehounds happy. I was satisfied with the amount of mayhem, and the effects were actually nicely made.

If you expect a zombie movie, which I did, you might be a bit disappointed, as it is not actual stereotypical zombies as in many other movies, but it is more like mutated space-zombies, in lack of better words. But despite that fact, then "Brain Dead" was actually a rather enjoyable movie on almost every front.

Lots of blood, gore and laughs, just lacking actual zombies.

It's a B-series Zombies' flick which mixes gore with humor, like it uses to be common in the genre.

Some of the jokes are funny and some of the gore scenes too!

In fact the type of gore used is not to shock you but to make you laugh.

It also has some beautiful and nude girls who definitely help to sustain this movie interesting...

I might say it's enjoyable and nice for gore fun but it's not a reference, not even in the genre.

I score it 6/10.

I saw this at the GoreZone magazine Gore-Fest this weekend- in London (it was the UK premier-) i was looking forward to seeing this film- and although the title is ludicrously unoriginal - (most people will think it's Dead Alive/Brain Dead let's be honest!!) it didn't disappoint.

Packed full of excellent splatter gore and comedic situations- and not taking itself too seriously- A breath of (not so) fresh air - and more than holds it's own in it's genre. Some great comedic acting from the felon reluctantly on the run handcuffed to a dim witted trigger happy psycho- and the eye candy cliché babes in distress also did well with tongue firmly in cheeks and totally self aware of their stereotype! I recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Bad Taste, Brain Dead, Undead- and Kevin S. Tenneys previous works 'Night of the Demons' & 'Witchboard'. Enjoy.

Let's face it...some movies merely exist as a vehicle to turn your brain off for an hour and a half or so. They are not for thinkers, hipsters, or people who don't know a joke when they see one. That is precisely why movies like Brain Dead get made and sometimes they'll make you happy that they do get made. Unlike a good number of big budget blockbusters who are just as goofy but take themselves way too seriously, a fair amount of movies (especially in the horror genre) plant their tongue firmly in cheek and keep winking at the camera.

There's nothing terribly original here...a bunch of people from different walks of life and about as different as they could possibly be wind up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere under assault by the undead. Yes, you've seen it before...but there's not a ton of fertile ground for new zombie stories. Be my guest and try, but I'm betting a fair number of zombie purists will cry and whine. On the whole this movie looks like it had a bit of a budget but it certainly won't have you checking to see why did the special effects. It kind of looks like a Sci-Fi Channel movie that way...not low budget but certainly watching what it spends.

None of the actors are particularly stand out but they all do their jobs just fine. And, as a man, I have no problem with clearly gratuitous amounts of nudity. Complain if you want, but boobs just belong in horror movies. Period. Now previously I mentioned the special effects...that only goes for the CGI. All of the practical effects and gore are actually done pretty well and usually with hilarious consequences. Bottom line is that if every movie you watch simply MUST have some thought provoking subtext, steer clear of this movie and stay the hell away from me as well. You're far too self serious and need to be kept away from society. If you can, on the other hand, agree to turn your brain off for a bit of time, maybe crack open a beer or two and have a couple laughs this may be worth a look. That's more than I can say for a lot of horror movies being made these days.